This is a review of Holly Mann vs. The Rich Jerk. Holly Mann is the young online entrepreneur that has successfully marketed directly against the Rich Jerk marketing method.
Holly at some point decided she could research, author, publish and market a kinder and gentler product and sales pitch. Evidently she has found her niche selling "How-To" information because she has become a sensational success in a very short period of time.
Holly claims to be making $10,000 - $12,000 a month with only a few hours of work a day, and that it took her about 4 months to figure out Internet marketing.
Her first e-book was an instant success, and now it has been updated and revised. "Honest Riches 2" is a 95 page proven guide. Holly shows all the techniques she has used to make money online through affiliate programs starting with no website and no start-up money, then on to free websites that can easily be setup with little or no experience, including free advertising that most people don't know or think about.
This e-book is geared for beginners, but is a valuable resource for all online marketers. No "get-rich-quick" schemes here....like any real business endeavor it involve some effort and some work. But you will learn strategies and techniques to start making money right away.
Making money online and working from home is possible, but don't quit your day job just yet. You need a system and you need the right tools and knowledge to be successful. Changing your career is a life changing decision. Before taking the leap, do plenty of due diligence and adequate research for information and resources about starting an e-commerce business and becoming successful online.
Digital Nomad writes reviews on e-books and online income opportunities and Internet marketing systems. Save time in reviewing Honest Riches vs. The Rich Jerk by visiting this blog: http://e-honestriches.blogspot.com
How to Create and Profit from Your Own Article Directory
Copyright (c) 2007 Donna Gunter
As someone who writes a new article each week and submits it to online article directories, the thought has occurred to me more than once that I should have my own article directory, as well. Your own article directory can serve as yet another lead-generation tool for your primary website, serve as yet another place to showcase your expertise, and help you create another stream of income for your business.
Here's what you need to do to create and profit from your own article directory.
1. Choose a compelling domain name. Start matching keywords that a searcher would use to find your type of business with the word "articles" and see what kinds of results you get when you search for those terms. You'll also want to check how popular the search is for those terms with a tool like Wordtracker. Normally I suggest that you buy only the .com version of the domain, but in this case, any version will do, as this site simply serves as a lead generator. Buy the domain name that best fits your target market.
2. Install software. There's a free piece of software that you can use to manage your article directory called Article Dashboard. It has to be installed on your hosting account and can be customized with your own graphic header. It also permits others to create accounts and submit articles to your site, helps you manage authors and review submissions, and much more.
3. Create keyword-rich categories. Do a bit of research and determine the type of info that your target market researches online. Create article categories that match those search requests.
4. Complete basic SEO. Create your title, keyword, and description metatags and embed those into your directory. If you're unsure how to do this, use this handy online metatag creator that I use: http://www.invision-graphics.com/meta-tag-generator.html
5. Upload your articles to your directory. After completing the customization of your site, become your first author and submit all of your articles to your site. Make sure you have a compelling resource box appended to each article that will make visitors want to check out your website.
6. Find other articles for your directory. There are many thousand article banks online. Some of the more well-known ones are ArticleAlley.com, ArticlesFactory,com, EzineArticles.com, IdeaMarketers.com, and SearchWarp.com. You can search manually for articles that are relevant to your target market and place those within your directory, or you can sign up as a distributor/publisher at the article banks so that you'll receive articles on certain topic areas when authors submit them to the article banks. My article distribution service permits this, as well. Or, if you want to be the primary expert, let other authors find you and let your article directory serve to showcase just your articles.
7. Monetize your site. One way to earn profit from an article directory is to place Google Adsense ads on your site. You can place them across the top, down the right or left side, or at the end of the page for individual articles. Place banner ads on the site for relevant products for your target market for which you are an affiliate and/or participate in some type of banner exchange program if you can ensure that the only banners displayed will be appropriate for your target market. Create an Amazon search box on your site that displays products relevant for your target market. While you won't earn tons of money from these strategies, every little bit helps, right?
8. Create a call to action. If one of the purposes of your article directory is as a lead-generation tool, you must place a call to action on the site. You can use a hover ad to encourage someone to sign up for your email newsletter and/or get your free ecourse, ebook, etc. Or, you can place a graphic or an ad on your site that encourages visitors to click through to your primary site.
9. Install your stats package. Website metrics/statistics will tell you how your site is performing. Your hosting company may provide some basic statistical info as a part of your hosting account, or you can get more detailed info from free programs Google Analytics or StatCounter.com.
10. Generate traffic. If you've done your research, much of your traffic may be organically driven to your site based on searches on specific keywords popular with your target market. However, you can also use Google's Adwords program or other PPC (pay-per-click) engines to drive traffic to this site.
The primary goal of Internet surfers is to find free valuable content that gives them a solution to a problem. An article directory is the perfect place to provide that relevant content, help you generate leads for your primary site, and make a few bucks from site advertising in the process.
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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at GetMoreClientsOnline.com.
The 10 Biggest Mistakes I See Information Marketers Make
1. No upsells in their on-line ordering system
You've got them on your order page - primed and ready to purchase your product. They're in a buying mood. Yet, you don't offer them additional products they can purchase right then and there. Bottom line - you're leaving a lot of money on the table. I've seen up to 90% of purchasers take the upsell that was offered on certain products. And I've seen upsells work well where the "upsell" was priced at 3 times the price of the original product. You're only limited by your creativity, but if you aren't offering any upsell you know what your results will be - zero.
2. No ride along offers with their physical product shipments
Similar to the upsell, you've got a new customer that has just received your product. Assuming you've delivered as promised on the quality of your content and you have a sharp looking package, then you have a prime prospect to purchase additional products from you. So include a promotional piece or two in your physical package that offers them additional items of yours to purchase. The only cost is the printing cost of the pieces you choose to include.
3. Trying to do their own product duplication and fulfillment
I always ask people the question "Are You a Speaker or a Fulfillment House?" When you're first starting out the economics may require you to do it all yourself. But once you're rocking and rolling you've got to ask yourself the question "What's the best use of my time?" Is it running of manuals at your local copy shop, burning CDs one at a time on your computer, searching for boxes and packaging materials, and running products down to the post office or the local UPS store to ship out everyday. The answer should be no. The most valuable use of your time is sales and marketing of your products and services and new product creation.
4. Not investing some time everyday in marketing
Your products won't market themselves. Yet so many information marketers get caught up in the day to day of working in their business they don't spend any time working on their business. You must invest some time everyday in marketing. Do at least one thing a day that will help you to build your business. Write an article, make a call to a potential joint venture partner, send out a promotion to your list. Whatever, do something each day that is an investment in building your information marketing empire.
5. Selling their product for too little
Too many information marketers price their products way too low. If you think you're going to make it in the information marketing business selling products for $15 then you're probably kidding yourself. The only exception would be if you have massive retail distribution selling thousands of units. Don't undervalue your products. If you're selling physical products for less than $97 you're going to have a tough go of it in this industry. Figure out how you can bundle a few things together to come up with $297, $497, $997 or higher priced products.
6. Trying to make it perfect
Just get it done. It doesn't have to be perfect. I've seen product launches delayed months while the creator was crossing every "t" and dotting every "i" for the fifth time. Yes, I think you need to have your product proofread by another set of eyes. But it does not have to be perfect. Get it out there and start generating some revenue. You can always tweak it on future production runs. Should it look professional - definitely. But don't let your obsession with perfection get in the way of getting your product to market.
7. Selling a product that isn't yet fully developed
This one tends to be a bigger problem for platform speakers than for regular information marketers, but here's the gist of it. A speaker offers a package from the platform that includes some components that are in development. They think it will take two more weeks to finish everything up. But, invariably, it ends up taking two months or more to complete. So you end up with a lot of unhappy customers who want refunds because delivery promises were not kept. The real key is to manage expectations. People will wait some period of time before things are in their hands, but if you keep pushing that delivery time out it will bite you.
8. Not testing your on-line ordering system prior to launch date
You've put months worth of effort into creating your fantastic new information product. You've lined up joint venture partners and your offer is being blasted out to thousands of people. Then someone tries to order and they can't get their order through. Oops, you forgot to check your shopping cart system out ahead of time. Does everything work as it's supposed to? Is your fulfillment house getting copies of all your orders as they come in? Don't scramble around after the fact trying to get your ordering mechanism in place and fully tested.
9. No "Read this First" or "Getting Started" document to guide users
You've assembled a comprehensive new course that's the latest and greatest on subject "x". It consists of 12 CDs, 6 DVDs, and a 400 page manual that arrives at your customer's door in a big box. You've definitely got "thump value". But when your customer opens the box he is overwhelmed by your product because he doesn't know where to get started. So include some type of "Read this First" or "Getting Started" document that will outline for your customer step by step how to consume your information. If they immediately put your product aside because they don't know where to begin then chances are they'll never get going with it. Which means there's a significant chance they'll return it and nearly a 100% chance they'll never purchase anything else from you. So, tell them how to "consume" your product in a logical manner and you'll be ahead of the game.
10. No unannounced bonuses in package
Everyone likes surprises. When you send your package to a customer be sure to include some unannounced bonus they weren't anticipating that further increases the perceived value of your product. It doesn't have to be another physical component - it can be a bonus they download or an additional file contained on one of the CDs or DVDs they weren't anticipating.
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Tired of trying to do it all yourself? Bret RIdgway is co-founder of Speaker Fulfillment Services, a company dedicated to working with authors, speakers and information marketers. We provide product duplication and fulfillment services so that you can focus your efforts on the more important sales/marketing and product creation activities. For more information visit http://www.SpeakerFulfillmentServices.com .
